WND EXCLUSIVE

Famous rabbi's mystery solved! Or not?

Controversy over revelation of 'name of Messiah' heats up

When Israel Today first revealed to the world in April of 2007 that Rabbi Yitzhak Kaduri had left a supposed death note proclaiming the name of the real Messiah was Yehoshua (Jesus), the orthodox Jewish world was thrown into a furor.

“So, Rabbi Kaduri has become a Christian?” some asked. Other distraught Jews, according to the article, proclaimed, “I suppose the Christians are dancing in the streets!”

His book is the only one that recounts the amazing and still unfolding story.

The book has been made into a one-hour DVD documentary by WND Films and award-winning producer-director George Escobar. Escobar is also the producer of the No. 1 Faith movie in America, “The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment.”

“I am asked this question a lot,” Gallups said. “Did Kaduri become a Christian? Truly, I have no way of knowing that answer with absolute certainty. But, I think it is important to first examine the heavily documented facts of the story and then, also, to put in context the whole concept of a Jew ‘becoming a Christian.'”

Gallups said the facts of the story “are fairly indisputable.”

“It was reported in Israeli print media that Kaduri claimed he had a vision of the ‘real’ Messiah. These reports go all the way back to 2003. It was also reported that he eventually claimed that he had written the name of the Messiah in a note and that the note was to be opened one year after his death. There are witnesses on record to the fact of Kaduri’s death note claim. It is also a fact that a note did appear on Kaduri’s own website a year after his death. The note was downloaded from his site – the world over. His own website claimed this was the long awaited death note.”

Israel Today and the Hebrew language News First Class ran the story about the note. When translated from Hebrew to English the note simply reads:

Concerning the letter abbreviation of the Messiah’s name, He will lift the people and prove that his word and law are valid.

This I have signed in the month of mercy. – Yitzhak Kaduri

After a while, many of his followers saw the meaning of the note.

Apparently it had been written in cryptic form. The instruction about the “letter abbreviation” of Messiah’s name was the clue. When the first letters of each of the Hebrew words of the next line (He will lift the people and prove that his word and law are valid) were extracted, they spelled Yehoshua (Jesus).

Gallups said the testimonies of some of Kaduri’s own students are in the book and documentary.

“These students are on record stating that Kaduri often spoke of Messiah to his classes and frequently identified the Messiah as Yehoshua. This is pretty hard evidence to credibly refute,” he said.

“Now for the main question,” Gallups went on to say, “Did Kaduri become a Christian? This is the controversial pondering that seems to be the most upsetting to the Jewish community. And I understand that anxiety. If one thinks that Kaduri immediately went down and joined a Baptist church, if that is the image they have in their mind – they are utterly mistaken. Kaduri was a Jew. He was a rabbi. He was a deeply devoted student and teacher of the ancient Jewish scriptures as well as the Jewish commentaries and even the controversial mystical Jewish writings. He was steeped in rabbinical Judaism. This fact cannot be ignored and it must not be forgotten.

Gallups said that if Kaduri “actually did have a vision, or a revelation, that Yehoshua was the Messiah, his understanding would have been no different than the first century Jews who were first believing in Yehoshua of Nazareth as the Christ!”

That means, he said, the Christian faith was born out of Judaism.

“People tend to forget that fact,” he said. “Deeply devoted Jews wrote the whole of the New Testament. The early church was made up entirely of Jews – for several decades. It would not be until the ministry of the Apostle Paul, (a Jew, a rabbi, a Pharisee) that the early Jews who believed in Yehoshua would finally reach out to the Gentile world. What was their message when they finally did reach out to the Gentile world? – Yehoshua is Messiah! When God put on flesh to dwell among us and become our sin sacrifice, the Lamb of God, He put on Jewish flesh! This is an astounding reality!”

Gallups said “the most important thing to remember in all of this is that Kaduri’s message was not for the westernized Christian community.”

“It was not for world consumption so much as it was a message for the Jews. And, I believe, it was a message for the Jews as we now might be living in the last days. Kaduri was the most beloved rabbi of modern Israel. Three hundred thousand people came to his funeral. The streets of Jerusalem had to be shut down on the day of his burial. Could it be that the Lord used a rabbi of this stature to proclaim, one more time, to the people of Israel what had already been declared and demonstrated in the first century: Yehoshua is the real Messiah! Certainly that could very well be what has happened. And we are now telling that story. People can do with it what they wish – but the story is true.”

Some months prior to the note’s appearance on Kaduri’s website, and prior to Kaduri’s death, the ominous and prophetic words of one of his many Messiah utterances were posted:

Many have known his (Messiah’s) name but have not believed that he is the Messiah.

Gallups commented: “And there you have it. Many have known Messiah’s name. When Kaduri said many he was speaking to the Jews among whom he ministered. Kaduri said – they have known his name – but – they have not believed it! And when he left the name, he left just such a name – Yehoshua. It is the very name that many Jews have known for many centuries – yet refused to believe. And remember – Kaduri said this about the name of the Messiah long before the controversial note was revealed! And thus the story and the controversy remains until the coming of Messiah!”